Actually, I liked Baldur's Gate series (and other IE games), and also liked Arx Fatalis. It is very different from the Infinity Engine games, though, and the draw-runes-to-cast-spells can be annoying sometimes. You can pre-cast spells and store them up to three spells, but that's it.
Character creation... not much here. You can change the head, adjust some starting stats, but it's not very friendly to people who must have unique avatars. Can't choose gender. Classless system.
The graphics are a bit dated, but I can live with that. Interface's not the best in the world, though, and the journal definitely needs work. Every kind of message -- the help in tutorial, quest entries, etc. -- seem to be stacked up without any categorization. Buuut, small touches like having to cook food to eat and such are quite endearing. I also like the atmosphere (which reminds me a bit of PS:T): dim, subterranean and quite unique. My favourite kind. Sure, I like an average fantasyland, but the usual forests with frolicking elves and open sky can get a bit old.
Roleplaying... You don't really get to choose dialogue options. When you hit a quest NPC or certain NPCs, the characters talk on their own. Sorta like in Diablo 2, though your avatar gets to have some lines, too. The voiceacting isn't too shabby, either.
Combat... Straightforward if you're playing melee. You hit things. The longer you hold the mouse button, the harder you hit. I am not far in the game yet -- haven't played it for a while, really -- but I heard that playing a magic-user can be fun.
So... you might or might not like Arx Fatalis. If you can borrow someone's copy, it's worth trying out.
